


Back to Our Scars

by zahnie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Twins, Auror Harry Potter, Crossover, Established Relationship, F/M, First Impressions, Holding Hands, Hospitals, Leaky Cauldron, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Past Torture, Plants, Reunited and It Feels So Good, Squibs, Trans Female Character, Trans Parker, almost completely dialogue, like a lot of dialogue even for me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:27:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22770235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zahnie/pseuds/zahnie
Summary: On a routine break-in to steal back some valuable plants, Parker finds out she's Neville Longbottom's long-lost Squib identical twin sister.
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Comments: 15
Kudos: 85





	Back to Our Scars

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic came about cause I came across another Leverage/Harry Potter fic and saw the tags 'Parker (Leverage)', 'Neville Longbottom', and 'Siblings' and made a truly WILD surmise that didn't play out in the fic itself so I wrote it myself.
> 
> Thank you from the bottom of my heart to my dear friends, both internet and irl, for helping me make this fic as canon as I possibly could. Without you, I would have spent even more hours on HP wikis than I already did. Seriously, all the love <3
> 
> Title from me mishearing lyrics in [More by 5 Seconds of Summer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8isxwufVTas) ("I just wanna get back to us cause/ we used to have more" turns into "I just wanna get back to our scars/ we used to have more" in my ears and honestly, I prefer my version)

Parker slips through the roof access into the warehouse. She silently closes the door behind her and crouches on the ladder. Rows of industrial shelving spread out below, covering almost the whole floor. A closed-off area in the far corner catches her attention. Extension cords snake out from it in all directions.

“How’s it looking in there?” Hardison asks over the comm.

“It’s too cold but there could be a greenhouse. Going to take a closer look,” Parker subvocalizes.

“Okay. I’ve got all the cameras and alarms. Way too much security to guard a bunch of plants but whatever.”

“Stealing plants is stupid.” Parker climbs down the ladder. It ends about 8 feet off the ground. She jumps.

“No arguments here,” Hardison says.

“Plants are stupid. They don’t _do_ anything.”

“What about that Venus fly trap Hardison got you?” Eliot asks.

He has a point. “Okay, maybe not all plants. But they’re all stupid to steal because they’re delicate and you can’t leave them anywhere unless they have heat and water and light. Paintings don’t need any of those.”

She’s at the covered area now. It’s noticeably warmer over here. Parker tries the door. Locked, but not for long.

Inside, the light is bright enough that Parker pauses to let her eyes adjust. She sees the plants she came to steal back right away. The complicated pink roses look just like the photos in Hardison's briefing.

“Found them,” she tells the boys.

Parker reaches out. As her fingertips brush the first pot, something crashes behind her. She whirls around.

“What the hell was that?” Hardison asks.

“Parker! Are you okay?” Eliot asks.

There are two men in long coats standing in the greenhouse doorway. One of them has messy black hair, dark skin, and startlingly green eyes. But it's the other one she can't look away from.

The first man pulls a stick out of his sleeve. “Petrificus totalis!” he yells, waving it at Parker.

White light hits her in the chest. “Harry, no!” the other man yells at the same time.

Parker's spine stiffens, her arms snap to her sides, and she falls backwards to the floor. Her shoulder hits one of the pots on her way down. It smashes.

“Bloody hell,” one of the men says.

Parker tries to get up but she can't move. Her whole body is numb. Hardison and Eliot are yelling in her ear.

Her view of the greenhouse ceiling is obscured by the second man, staring down at her. Parker has no choice but to stare back. He looks just like her. How she would have looked.

“Don't worry, Neville, she'll be okay. I'll Obliviate her before we go,” Harry says.

“Parker, if you don't answer _right_ _now_ , I'm coming in to get you,” Eliot growls.

Neville takes out his own stick. “Finite Incantatem,” he says, his eyes never leaving hers.

Red light bursts between them. Parker curls up instinctively, her arms over her head. She aches all over.

“I'm sorry,” Neville says.

“Neville! What did you do that for?” Harry yells.

Parker lifts her head in time to see Neville step between her and Harry, his back to Parker. “You can't Obliviate her.” His voice wavers slightly on the last word.

“What are you talking about?” Harry asks, sounding both annoyed and confused.

Parker stands up slowly. As she does, she hears an impact on the warehouse door, too loud to be a knock.

Neville and Harry both turn at the noise. Parker takes her chance and shoves past both of them to the greenhouse door.

“Wait!” Neville calls.

Parker runs out into the main warehouse. She can't think about what this could mean. She can't.

The warehouse door rattles in its frame as something hits it again.

“I think I'm your brother!” Neville cries.

Parker stops. She looks over her shoulder at Neville. He's standing in the greenhouse doorway, looking strange and familiar at the same time.

“Please stay,” he says.

Another impact.

Parker takes a deep breath. “I'm okay,” she whispers. “Something weird is happening but I'm okay.”

“What the hell is going on? Who keeps yelling Latin at you?” Hardison asks.

“Parker, open the door,” Eliot says.

“Give me your stick,” Parker says, turning to face Neville.

Neville blinks. “My what?”

“Your wand,” Harry says, joining him in the doorway.

“Yours too,” Parker says. “And my partners are coming in.”

Neville steps forward. Parker backs up automatically. He stops short.

“If we put our wands away, is that good enough?” Harry asks. “Since you'll outnumber us in a minute.”

Parker hesitates. It's hard to think. She doesn't have enough information about how the wands work.

Harry slowly tucks his wand into his sleeve. So does Neville.

“Parker.” Eliot's voice is firm. It grounds her in reality.

“I'm coming,” she says, loud enough for Neville and Harry to hear too.

Eliot's pounding has warped the warehouse door a little so it's harder to open than it should be. Its lock is a joke. It practically falls apart when Parker picks it.

Hardison checks her over quickly with his eyes as he enters the warehouse. He looks kind of freaked out. Parker isn't sure what her face is doing.

Eliot squints into the relatively dim interior. When he sees Neville, his eyebrows go up but he doesn't say anything.

The three of them walk over to Neville and Harry, Hardison on one side of Parker and Eliot on the other. Harry smiles at them. Neville just keeps staring at Parker, like he can't look at her enough.

Hardison breaks the silence. “So... how did you get in here? Didn't see you outside.”

“We Apparated,” Harry says. When Hardison looks blank, Harry explains, “We used a transportation spell.”

“A transportation spell,” Hardison repeats, sounding skeptical. “Sure you did.”

Parker nudges him. He glances at her and she nods.

“What, seriously?” Hardison turns back to stare at Harry and Neville. Eliot hasn't taken his eyes off them.

“I guess you aren't a wizard then,” Harry says, smiling again.

“Magic is real? Why didn't I know about this?” Hardison asks. He leans past Parker to ask Eliot, “Did you know about this?”

“Magic is _not_ real,” Eliot growls.

“If you two want a demonstration—” Harry begins.

“No!” Neville and Parker exclaim at the same time.

“Right, sorry,” Harry says, raising his empty hands.

There's a pause while everybody looks at each other and Parker seriously considers just running for it.

“Can I... what's your name?” Neville asks, stumbling over his words but clearly talking to her.

“Parker.”

“Oh. I thought it was... Gran told me it was something else. What about your last name?” Neville asks.

Parker has a pretty good idea which name he's talking about. She's glad he didn't say her deadname out loud. “I don't have one.”

Neville's forehead creases. “But when you were adopted—”

Parker cuts him off, “I wasn't.”

“Oh,” Neville says again.

Harry says, quickly, “I'm Harry Potter. Since we're introducing ourselves.”

“I'm Neville Longbottom,” Neville says, giving them a little bow.

Eliot and Hardison give out their names too. Their real names. They're following her lead because they can see this is important. Parker feels a burst of love for her boyfriends.

“Why are you here anyway?” Harry asks.

“Why are you?” Parker asks back.

“Is it a magic thing?” Hardison asks, eagerly.

“Oh, I'm helping Harry with his investigation,” Neville explains. “We're looking for illegally harvested Wiggentree seedlings, so it _is_ a bit magical.”

Investigation? Parker looks Harry up and down. He isn't wearing a uniform she recognizes.

“Wait,” Hardison says, “Wait. Are you telling me there are _magic cops_?” That's his delighted-and-horrified squeak.

“Aurors,” Harry says, smiling. “I've never run into Muggle thieves either so this is a first for all of us.”

Parker can't help but tense up a little, even though she doesn't know what a Muggle is. Beside her, Eliot tenses up _a lot_. He's probably starting to do the thing with his eyes that scares people too.

“Are we here for the same thing?” Harry asks.

“No, we're stealing back Juliet roses,” Parker says.

“Then we should all get what we came for and get out of here,” Eliot says.

“I got the cameras, baby, we'll be fine here a bit longer,” Hardison argues.

“There's better places to talk than the middle of a warehouse we all broke into,” Eliot points out.

***

They end up meeting at a pub in London, after dropping off the Juliet roses to a very happy client. Nate and Sophie are still working the other end of the job but they'll be fine on their own for a few hours.

The pub is called The Leaky Cauldron but there's just a boarded up storefront where it's supposed to be.

“We're at the right place, don't look at me,” Hardison says, typing rapidly on his phone as Parker and Eliot study the faded graffiti. “Nothing online so far either.”

A moment later, Parker sees Harry and Neville walk through the door she somehow didn't see before. Neville's face lights up when he sees her. “You found it!” he says.

“You gave us the address. Of course we found it,” Parker says. Eliot nudges her gently, so maybe that was supposed to be small talk.

Neville's smile slips a little. “Let's go inside then.”

“How?” Hardison asks. “There's no door.” He gestures vaguely at the building. The door is gone again.

Parker blinks and it reappears. She concentrates and the door stays still. Weird.

Harry pats Neville on the arm. “Concealment spell for Muggles,” he says like he's explaining. Parker still doesn't know what a Muggle is.

Harry holds out his empty hand. “I'll have to lead you inside.”

Eliot takes Parker's left hand and she grabs Hardison's with her right. “Together,” Eliot says, as he grasps Harry's hand.

Harry pulls them through the door in a line. Parker feels Eliot and Hardison each flinch in turn as they cross the threshold, like the wall is still there for them.

“So cool,” Hardison whispers.

The Leaky Cauldron is dimly lit, panelled in dark wood, and mostly empty. The bartender glances up as they come in. She does a double-take when she sees Parker.

Neville smiles at her. “Hannah, can we have a round of butterbeers please?”

Hannah nods slowly, taking all of them in. As she turns away, Neville waves them toward the back of the pub to a booth half-hidden behind a pillar.

Parker slides in first, then Hardison, then Eliot. The booth's bench is a bit crowded with three people but not too bad. Neville sits directly across from Parker with Harry beside him.

There's a moment where it feels like the conversation should start but it doesn't. Parker isn't good at guessing what other people are feeling most of the time but this seems awkward. Neville goes between staring at her and looking everywhere else.

“You knew about me,” Parker says into the silence.

“Not until a few years ago. But... Gran said...” Neville stops.

Eliot crosses his arms. “She said?” he prompts.

Neville flushes. “She said I had an identical twin brother. But, um... I don't know how she could have got that wrong.”

When she was a kid, everybody got it wrong. “I'm trans,” Parker explains.

Harry nods. Neville glances at him, then back to Parker. “Sorry, not sure I know what that means,” he says.

“You remember Blaise Zabini from our year?” Harry asks. “He's trans. The professors thought he was a girl until he told them he wasn't.”

Neville nods, slowly. Parker braces herself for questions.

“So, you two went to college together?” Hardison asks Harry, after a minute.

“Not college,” Harry says. “Hogwarts. It's a secondary boarding school for wizards. Neville's a professor there now.”

Neville smiles. “ _Assistant_ professor. Professor Sprout wants to train me before she retires.”

“That won't take long. You always were brilliant at Herbology,” Harry says.

“What's Herbology?” Eliot asks.

“The study of magical plants and their properties,” Neville explains.

He looks like he'd say more but Hannah arrives then, balancing five tall mugs of beer on a tray. When she's finished handing them out, she says quietly, “Make sure you're out before the dinner rush. I'll get fired for letting your Muggle friends in if anyone complains.”

Harry starts to stand up but Hannah waves at him to sit down. “Stay, have a few pints.” She glances at Neville and smiles. “On the house.”

Neville smiles back. “Thanks, Hannah.”

“Least I can do,” she says and leaves.

“What was that about?” Hardison asks.

Harry shrugs. “We're breaking the Statute of Secrecy by talking to you. Muggles—non-magical people—aren't supposed to know anything about the wizarding world.”

Parker nods. “And I'm not magical so they sent me away.” It makes sense now.

She says it calmly but everybody else looks uncomfortable. Neville takes a deep breath. “They didn't know,” he says.

She stares at him.

“And anyway, even if you _are_ a Squib, Gran should've kept you. When non-magical kids are born to wizarding families, they don't just... they _keep_ them. Some Squibs go to live with Muggles because it's easier but it isn't required. Even with no magic, they can see through the concealment spells and fit in with wizards.”

That explains the vanishing and reappearing door. “Then why?” Parker asks.

Neville bites his lip. “Gran told me she believed this old superstition about twins always having a Squib and a wizard, like there's only enough magic for one baby. It isn't true, I know twins who are both wizards, but she believed it at the time and decided you'd be better off with a Muggle family.” He shakes his head. “And then when I didn't show my magic right away, she and Uncle Alfie thought Gran had kept the wrong twin. They... they were relieved when I was accepted to Hogwarts.”

“But what if I did have magic?” Parker asks. She wonders what magic would feel like from the inside. Control instead of helplessness.

“You would have been accepted to an American magic school,” Neville says, like it would have been that easy.

“And they'd try hard to find you too,” Harry adds. “Hogwarts sent me about a thousand letters before I finally got to read one of them.”

“What about our parents?” Parker asks.

Neville takes another deep breath and speaks hesitantly. “They... there was a war. When we were babies.” He pauses. “They were tortured for information with a spell. It... damaged their minds. I still visit them but they don't know who I am.”

It's hard to breathe. Why is it so hard? Parker doesn't remember them.

Neville is still talking. “But the man behind it—the torturers, the war, _everything_ —he's dead. Harry defeated him. Again.”

“I couldn't have done it without your help,” Harry says.

Hardison slips his arm over Parker's shoulders, lightly so she can nudge him off if she needs to. She's frozen. Everything's far away.

Eliot's asking what they mean, trying to get Neville and Harry to explain more about the war.

“They called me crazy,” Parker interrupts, without knowing she's going to say it.

Neville's attention snaps to her like a spotlight. “What?”

She meets his eyes. “I'm not. I never was.”

Neville nods slowly. She can see some emotion in his face. It's so much like her face but that doesn't make it easier to read.

He blinks first. Somehow, that helps. She can feel the imaginary ice thawing around her.

“Who called you that?” Harry asks.

Parker shrugs. Hardison starts to move his arm away. She leans against him a little and he puts it back. He's warm.

“Anyway, I want to see them. Our parents,” Parker says to Neville.

He and Harry look at each other. Then Neville says, “They're still at St. Mungo's but...”

“You visit them,” Parker points out.

“They'll let _you_ in, especially if you're with me,” Neville reassures her. “But, uh, no Muggles allowed in the hospital unless they're there for treatment.”

“Then we'll just break in,” Parker says. How hard could it be?

Harry grins. “I have another idea. Wait here for a bit.” He vanishes.

The loud cracking sound of his spell makes Parker wince. Not stealthy.

“Where did he go?” Eliot asks.

Neville looks really alone now, sitting across from the three of them. He smiles anyway. “Harry hardly ever does what I expect him to do, so I have no idea.”

He clears his throat, the smile fading. “So. Can I ask... where did you go as a child? Since you weren't adopted.”

Hardison tenses up a little beside her. Parker says, “Different foster homes until I was about ten. Mostly on my own after that.”

“You were homeless at ten years old?” Neville asks, his eyes wide.

Parker shakes her head. “Not really. I was in juvie or group homes whenever they caught me. But when Archie caught me, he taught me how to be a thief.” She grins. “Now I'm the best.”

“Archie?”

“I tried to steal his wallet,” Parker explains.

Neville nods slowly. He's still making an expression. Parker wants him to understand. It's important that he understands. “Archie taught me the best thieves work alone, they don't get involved. But that isn't true. I'm even better with a team to back me up.”

Neville glances at Hardison and Eliot. “So that's where you two come in?”

“We're not the whole team,” Eliot says.

Neville says to Parker, “But, when we first met, you called them your partners.”

“Oh, that's because we're dating,” Parker says.

With an even louder cracking noise than before, Harry pops back into the booth. He's holding something weird in his hands.

Parker leans forward so she can see it better. It's like he's holding a bundle of nothingness.

“So, same idea you had when you were eleven then,” Neville says.

Harry grins at him. “Useful for all occasions,” he says. He lays the bundle down on the table and pushes it towards Hardison.

Hardison gingerly touches it. “Feels like cloth. What is it?”

“It's my invisibility cloak,” Harry says.

***

St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries is busier than Parker would have expected. The waiting room near the entrance is bustling with people, some of them dressed in normal clothes. Lime green is the most popular robe colour.

Parker's robe is black and smells like old hats. Hannah lent it to her from the Leaky Cauldron's lost-and-found. She's definitely going to return it after this.

Nobody gives Neville and Parker a second glance as they cross over to the intake desk. “We're here to see Frank and Alice Longbottom,” Neville tells the woman sitting behind it.

“Welcome back, dear.” She shuffles a stack of stiff-looking papers before she looks up. Something is moving on the top one.

The woman stares at Parker, then Neville, then Parker. “Merlin's beard, this is a surprise,” she says. “I thought they only had the one child.”

“Can we just go in then?” Neville asks.

“Sign the guest book. You know the rules, Neville, dear.” She points at a huge open book at one end of her desk. There's a feather lying on it.

Neville picks up the feather, dips it in the tiny jar next to the book like that's perfectly normal, and signs his name. Parker draws a squiggle underneath it.

“Neville!” Harry calls from the entrance. People stare at him and whisper to each other as he crosses the room. They give him plenty of space too, just like Harry said they would.

“Can I come in with you?” Harry asks, too cheerfully for a hospital.

Neville pretends to think about it. “Alright,” he says after a moment.

Harry signs the guest book and they all enter together.

The Janus Thickey Ward is on the fourth floor. On the stairs, Parker can hear more noise than the three of them are making, but none of the nearby distracted wizards seem to notice.

Eliot and Hardison last all the way to Frank and Alice's room before they come out from under the invisibility cloak.

“ _That_ was not as fun as it sounded,” Hardison says as he reappears.

Eliot is only a head and an arm for a second until he folds the cloak up. “It never sounded fun,” he retorts.

Hardison snorts like he doesn't believe him. He's much more excited about magic in general than Eliot is.

Parker turns to watch Neville. He's across the room with his parents. Their parents. He's talking to them gently. Both Frank and Alice Longbottom have wispy white hair and they're wearing matching pajamas.

Neville motions Parker over to join them. The others hang back as she steps forward.

“This is Parker,” Neville says. “She's your daughter. We're twins.”

Parker reaches out her hand involuntarily. She's shaking a little.

Alice and Frank don't react. They look at Parker like she could be anybody. It hurts, even though she knew they wouldn't recognize her. Parker lowers her hand.

Neville slowly takes Frank's hand and then extends his other hand to Parker. She takes it. Gently, Neville connects Parker to her father by bringing their hands together. Then, he does the same to Alice with Parker's other hand.

She stands there for what feels like an eternity, holding her parents' hands, heart thumping in her ears. Too many emotions fill up her chest. She blinks back tears.

When Alice gently pulls her hand away, Parker lets her go. Frank does the same a moment later. Parker holds her breath. She stares at the polished wooden floor, willing herself not to cry.

Finally, she looks up and Neville is watching her. He twists his face like he's trying to smile but can't.

Parker realizes that if anybody knows how she feels right now, it's him. Though Neville always knew who his parents were, he never had them either. She tries to smile back at him.

Then, she turns to Eliot and Hardison, waiting with Harry by the door. Parker waves them over and says, her voice only shaking a little, “Come meet my parents.”


End file.
